


Fading Marks

by A Certain No One (The_Marvellous_Hyolf)



Series: RENimagined stand-alones & one-shots [4]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Asexual Character, Gay Male Character, Heartbreak, M/M, Miscommunication, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Unhappy Ending, asexual character written by an asexual author
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:01:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26817772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Marvellous_Hyolf/pseuds/A%20Certain%20No%20One
Summary: Soulmates were a human thing, a thing of no relevance in the Devildom. Lucifer did not expect to find a mark on his hand one day - and even less did he expect to find a similar one on the hand of one of the two exchange students.Diavolo's right hand man, The Avatar of Pride himself, the strongest of the Seven Rulers of Hell... and a mere human? Ridiculous.He had to check if it is indeed the same mark, discreetly, without giving himself away - a difficult task when the other person's mark was faint, barely recognisable. For unknown reason.
Relationships: Lucifer (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Male Character(s)
Series: RENimagined stand-alones & one-shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1719370
Kudos: 34





	Fading Marks

**Author's Note:**

> This story goes similarly the plot of the game, for the fic to be compact - with that one minor change, that soulmates exist - so it focuses rather on the soulmate part.  
> Betareadong by @reneotomegirl! Thank you!

Lucifer never cared for the soulmate marks. It was a human thing. It barely affected the Devildom – a few young demons were born with marks, but it never became common. The magic leaking from the human world wasn’t strong enough to overcome the demonic power filling the Devildom and make the phenomenon anything more than a peculiarity. A rare thing, but not one of any significance.

The knowledge on marks was scarce as well – it was a fairly new and mysterious occurrence even in the human world, 3 or 4 human generations only. The Devildom barely knew such things existed and signified a destined lover you’re bound to spend your life with. How it worked in the human world, no one really cared – it brought no negative effect on the Devildom, so there was no need for any research.

Considering how rare it was in the Devildom, it was no wonder that Lucifer was beyond surprised that one evening, when he took off his gloves for bed, as usual, and found a mark on his left hand.

The situation was never so simple. When soulmate marks started appearing on people’s skin, the magical bonds seemed obvious. Humanity has dreamt about this already for long centuries – about having a fated partner somewhere there, someone who’d love you unconditionally. Passionately, with their whole heart.

The thing was only to find – and preferably marry – them as soon as possible to ensure your happiness and fulfilment in life.

Or so everyone thought before the issue started getting complicated. Everyone was born with a mark, but the questions started arising as soon as reality challenged the new myth of eternal love and fated encounters.

The fate narrative didn’t disappear right away, especially with marks still clearly signifying exceptional, mostly unique compatibility, but as the first generations of the marked were growing old and new ones demanding their needs be addressed, the myth was weakening quickly, when most of the people couldn’t rely on fixed destiny anymore.

But none of these details were known in the Devildom. All the generations of the marked humans were passing within a blink of an eye from a demon’s perspective. How it exactly worked, never mattered.

All that Lucifer knew was that there was someone there whom he was fated to love above himself – and while he didn’t hate the idea of being loved, being forced to fall for someone with his whole heart, head over heels, by some undefined fate, wasn’t a pleasant thought. It was infuriating.

And dangerous.

Around twenty years after Lucifer’s mark appeared, Diavolo announced the exchange programme. Looking through all the files of the candidates, Lucifer didn’t think much about his own situation. He wasn’t really expecting his destined partner to be a lowly human, anyway.

He had his opinion on humans, but wouldn’t say it to Diavolo’s face, so he followed all the orders, as usual, trying to pick the most suitable candidate to ensure his Lord’s plans would succeed.

One was already chosen, quite a safe bet, considering his power. But the other one had to be just an average human with no magic of their own – and in the end it proved itself pointless to try to find one perfect candidate.

However, when he studied the file of the second, randomly picked candidate later, it struck him that the age of the unmagical candidate seemed roughly similar to the age of Lucifer’s mark, slightly older than many other candidates. Solomon, a sorcerer of great magical power, wouldn’t be as bad, but the regular human, Ren, lacking any magical powers?

He could almost hear the menacing cackling of fate as he considered the possibilities. Despite himself he looked for the soulmate marks on the exchange students’ hands – just to be safe, on both of them, more to avoid showing his own to them even by accident, as he was telling himself. It would be unthinkable that the proud Lucifer, the Avatar of Pride and Lord Diavolo’s right hand man was destined to love a mere, lowly human.

He didn’t see any mark on the sorcerer, fortunately. Wherever Solomon had his mark – and if – it definitely wasn’t in the same place as Lucifer’s. As little as Lucifer knew about the marks, he did enough research to know it was enough to be sure that in this case he was safe.

The other student didn’t seem to have a mark either, at least at first glance, much to Lucifer’s relief.

But the relief turned out to be premature. Later, when Lucifer actually looked closer he found a faintly darker motif on Ren’s left hand, placed exactly where Lucifer had his.

The mark was however too light for Lucifer to really be able to compare, and the intensity of colour definitely did not match. Ren’s mark might have had nothing to do with his own, after all, especially if the shape wasn’t an exact match. And albeit the demon did not know whether it mattered or not, he decided to assume it might. There was though too much uncertainty about that not to concern him.

The faint mark kept occupying his mind; the less he could figure it out, the more he was drawn to it. The thought of being bound to someone – and a human, on the top of it, an average and completely unmagical human – was beyond humiliating. He couldn’t help but follow the movements of Ren’s marked hand, annoyed and offended by its sole existence.

Soon however the situation became clearer in the worst possible way.

The first time they actually had a friendly talk was just a coincidental encounter, not long after Ren gave him the record he wanted to listen to for so long. But it was the time Lucifer started considering the possibility seriously for the first time.

It was just another evening, when the clumsy human tried to get a book from a high shelf without a ladder. While it was a successful attempt, it caused an avalanche and made Lucifer leave his study and check what was happening. Just to find Ren covered in books. He helped to return the books to their shelves and showed him where to find the ladder.

“This isn’t the record I got for you, is it?”, Ren asked after the whole mess was cleaned. The music was barely audible, leaking from Lucifer’s study, but the boy still noticed it.

“Indeed, it isn’t. Does it disturb your reading?”

“No, of course not.” He shook his head. “It actually helped me focus. I was just wondering what it was.”

“It’s a famous composer you likely do not know. But your next week’s assignment covers music, including this one.”

Ren frowned slightly at the mention of yet another assignment, but just for a split second before his face returned to a neutral expression.

“Makes sense. It just doesn’t sound… _human_.”

“Oh?”

“Not in a bad way!” he added hastily. “It just has some elements I’ve heard only in music here.”

“If you notice that, the next assignment is going to be child’s play for you.” Lucifer smiled at him and added some words of encouragement, even a bit pleased with the attention Ren paid to his favourite music.

After that, Ren’s mark seemed to have grown a bit darker, and if the impression was true...

One time could be a coincidence, but when it continued happening, the horrifying possibility struck him finally. It made Lucifer’s slight pride of Ren’s achievements disappear immediately. He couldn’t help but pity and despise how easily a human’s heart could be affected. This was supposed to be the one person in the three worlds worthy of the Avatar of Pride?

Lucifer’s worst suspicions turned out to be likely true. Ren’s mark reacted to him, and whenever Lucifer did something that affected Ren, the faint mark was changing. Almost disappearing when the human got scared of Lucifer or held a grudge for unknown reason, and gaining some colour back when the two of them bonded a bit and Ren’s impression of the demon was becoming more positive – and when he actually smiled at him, just like he was smiling only around his brothers, genuinely.

But the mark still remained light and difficult to compare, especially with Ren usually keeping the hand in his pocket as if to hide it, so Lucifer couldn’t help but observe him closely.

And it was definitely good that he did, because the young man kept sticking his nose into everything he shouldn’t. Collecting pacts just to never use them. Refusing a pact because of no apparent reason, and almost getting killed more than once. At some point Ren didn’t seem to even get scared of death anymore, getting over close calls like it was some mundane everyday annoyance only.

Which was, honestly, quite an accurate assessment of the situation.

He got out of deadly trouble more times than anyone could count, and fitted in as if it was the most natural thing. His interests were a bit shallow, but even broader than his candidate file mentioned, so he was getting along with everyone – maybe even a bit too much. But there was something charming in the easiness with which Ren engaged in so many things with genuine interest and how he turned from a scared weakling into a regular mischief maker.

Despite all the observation however, Lucifer never knew what Ren was thinking. The human seemed so random, so chaotic, that any predictions were apparently doomed to fail. It wasn’t always a bad thing. There were times when Lucifer expected the worst, but was surprised to see the boy level-headed and calm, rather than causing another headache.

However, constantly keeping an eye on Ren, Lucifer caught him more than once examining the mark with a concerned expression. Why was that, Lucifer didn’t know. Soulmate marks were supposed to bring happiness to humans and yet it didn’t look like this specific human had any positive thoughts about his own mark. Was he worried that it’s so faint? Or was it for another reason?

But this made things easier for Lucifer to inquire without raising suspicions. So when there was a chance to make it sound like a casual talk, Lucifer struck up a conversation.

“Did you get hurt? You keep checking your hand.” He walked up to him, stopping close enough to be able to see the mark clearly.

Ren almost jumped, thrown out of his daze and looked up to Lucifer, suddenly guarded and anxious. He must have really been deep in thought and completely missed the question, so Lucifer – already a bit irritated, though almost only out of habit now – repeated himself.

“That’s…” the boy hesitated as if not wanting to disclose the details, an awkward smile on his face. “That’s a soulmate mark. Humans get those at birth.”

“Interesting.” Lucifer took Ren’s hand and examined it with faked indifference. The mark seemed to be indeed very similar to Lucifer’s, most of the intricate “design” matching – but with some parts so light that the shape was not recognisable anymore. This in itself was peculiar – an unevenly pigmented mark. But how high was the chance that those tiny elements differed when everything else matched perfectly, save for the saturation?

Maybe it was the same mark after all, as he suspected.

At this point he had already grown interested in that human. Ren seemed much less ordinary than at the beginning of the year. He managed to forge pacts with some of his brothers – and his drive to pact was highly worrisome.

Lucifer called him out once, but Ren never gave the real reason, only an excuse for his pact chase. It wasn’t particularly believable for him to just want to earn Lucifer’s respect. Lucifer, as much as he would definitely agree that his respect was a big and worthy goal, never believed it and suspected the excuse was just an attempt to stroke his ego so he, overcome by pride, would drop the issue.

But Lucifer never saw anything that would indicate that the young human meant any harm. Lucifer would probably tear Ren apart if his brothers were ever abused, but as concerning as the pact chase was, for some reason Ren never used any, and got, unexpectedly, very offended at some lower demon’s insinuation that pacts meant servitude. Much to Lucifer’s surprise and relief.

There was so much to this boy he just couldn’t understand, it was almost fascinating. And he wanted to understand. As he told himself, to predict the human’s actions better for damage control, if something goes south again.

But there was one more thing that made him consider. If the soulmates were as important to humans as he heard, Ren would probably offer and devote himself to Lucifer wholeheartedly.

It wasn’t a bad thought. Like owning a pet. But the destiny and fate linked with the concept of soulmates were still rubbing him the wrong way. A very wrong way.

Ren’s hand trying to slip out from his hold returned his drifting attention back to the mark.

“It’s very light. It doesn’t seem to be a good hint when it’s barely recognisable.”

“It doesn’t.” Ren nodded and put his hands into his pockets, as if trying to hide the mark, his whole posture closed and uncomfortable.

Did he suspect something already too? Or was it simply some cultural difference and humans don’t talk about their marks openly? But the boy was, as usual, too guarded to let Lucifer read anything more.

“Some just disappear. Nothing that uncommon and not like it can be helped.” He shrugged. “To be honest… I’d prefer it to be gone already.”

“You want it gone?” Yet another surprise. “Aren’t soulmates important to humans?”

“Well… yes.” Ren fidgeted. “But it’d be one thing less to be concerned about.”

If Ren was already suspecting Lucifer to have the same mark, then no wonder he was concerned. Now, not long after the mess with Luke, after the threatening talk during the party on the retreat, Ren’s mark really didn’t stand out – after all that happened, Lucifer wouldn’t be surprised if the boy was scared of the idea of being bound to him. That offended him a tiny bit, but it wasn’t a big deal.

Ren’s words, however, made Lucifer wonder what’s exactly the thing with the marks. The tiny scrap of information – that marks could disappear – was enough to turn the certainty of fated love into dust.

Maybe it was good. No, it definitely was good. Fate leaves no room for choice and free will. With fate out of the picture, there was much less out of control.

And yet, the fact that Ren wanted the mark already gone stung – and Lucifer didn’t know why.

The sight of the mark on his own skin – dark and clear – was annoying him whenever he took off his gloves, just as the mixed feelings were. Not just because he got wrapped up in some human world magic, but because he himself – albeit he’d never admit that – didn’t want the mark gone anymore.

And all that while Ren’s mark was disappearing.

Thinking of it couldn’t lead him anywhere. He had to finally admit that there were things he did not know enough about the marks. Things he had to look into. And so he did, including his trips to the human world.

Some of these trips would be completely unnecessary, if he just asked Satan for books. But relying on anyone – especially on Satan – never crossed his mind. And neither did asking either of the two humans in the Devildom, who could spare him weeks of research with one talk about an issue that was a core part of human society.

But it was already a lot for Lucifer’s pride to admit that he needed to educate himself. And on some lowly humans, on top of it.


End file.
